Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 10, 2001

When U.S. and Chinese military officials gather in San Francisco late this month for a scheduled meeting on safety issues, the spy plane controversy -- something the annual sessions were supposed to prevent -- is sure to be the prime topic.

The meeting, an outgrowth of a 1997 summit between then-President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, is the fourth annual conference designed to prevent accidents and misunderstandings in the air and at sea.

The April 1 collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet off the coast of China, which is straining relations between the two nations, could call into question the effectiveness of the military consultation agreement.

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"I wouldn't say that the process hasn't worked well," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command, which is planning the conference. "Accidents happen even when you have rules set up. Otherwise, with the U.S. traffic system, you wouldn't see accidents every day.

"We're taking the long view, trying to work out the commonalities. To think that everything's going to change between the United States and China overnight is not really a rational point of view."

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said at a press briefing Thursday that the U.S.-China military consultation agreement remains in effect.

He said he did not know whether China's recent actions violated the agreement.

The annual sessions were proposed after U.S.-Chinese tension increased in 1996 because of Chinese military exercises that included firing missiles into the sea around Taiwan. The United States sent aircraft carriers near Taiwan as a warning, bringing the two navies perilously close to one another.

After the Clinton-Jiang meeting, the two nations issued a joint statement in January 1998 announcing the establishment of a "consultation mechanism to strengthen military maritime safety." The closed-door meetings began six months later in Beijing and have since alternated between the two countries.

They were intended to bring together military officials and officers and diplomatic personnel for two or three days to discuss such topics as communication, accident prevention and search and rescue.

Kelly said yesterday that the San Francisco meeting is planned for around the end of this month, but specifics are not being disclosed for security reasons. The agreement requires a joint public statement afterward.

Kelly said general topics will include "respect of territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests of coastal states as defined by international law" and "how military aircraft should abide by international laws and customs, " as well as technical safety issues.

The San Francisco session could be canceled if the two nations decide to hold a special meeting of the maritime safety conference, in another location, on the airplane collision. The 1998 agreement provides for special meetings "for the purpose of consulting on specific matters of concern."

No such meeting has been scheduled, said Lt. Cmdr. Terry Sutherland, a Pentagon spokesman.